What is bullying?

Drawing: Sujeong

School bullying is a serious problem worldwide.  It's not a new problem. Our parents and grandparents can recall bullying incidents from their school years.  Yet, bullying continues to be a problem.

Find out more about bullying behavior at this PBS site:

Bullies: What is Bullying?

Send your ideas.

• What are some kinds of bullying behavior?
• How do you think bullying makes victims feel?
• What long term effects might bullying have on them?
• Have you ever been bullied?

Comments

[Demba]

Bullies are people who bully, then who make their victims feel really bad by hurting them physically or verbally.

Bullies act that way because of many reasons. Either they used to be spanked at home or either they want to be popular. In fact, some students bully others because they are spanked at home. And for that reason they want to have a revenge on weaker children.

Some other bullies are bullying because they want to transform a movie they saw into a reality.These kinds of movies are especially action movies (karate) ... These bullies want to act like the heros of those movies by hitting people. They want to be popular and show their power over others.

Because victims could be hurt badly, bullies should really be punished but the problem is some bullies act worse after being punished. Bullies just realize the stupidity of their action when they grow up and understand how bad they were acting towards people.

[Lim Ju Hee]

I think bullying is someone hurting a weaker peer who doesn't like it and bullying subjects a peer to humiliation, so it is wrong.

Suppose I were being bullied at school. the mere thought of it makes me shudder. I am touched for a victim and want to cheer him or her.

Some kinds of bullying behavior are calling someone names, taking another's property hitting someone, or making fun of someone.

[Eunjin Kim]

Bullying includes hitting, kicking, punching, name calling, and other actions to hurt people. The worst thing is hitting a victim in front of people. Then the victims suffer physically and mentally. If the bully just takes things from the victim, it doesn't matter to the victim, but if the bully hits him in front of a lot of people, the victim will also be disgraced. This has a very bad effect on the victim.

[Lee, Eun Hyun]

Many bullying incidents take place in the schoolyard. For example, bullies are hitting other students every day or ignoring them. Because of school bullying, some victims change schools or quit going to school. Many teachers just ignore bullying incidents. As a result, bullying in the schoolyard is becoming more and more serious.

In addition, other students just stand around and watch. Hardly anyone tries to intervene in a bullying incident. I think if we really hope to stop schoolyard bullying, everybody, including teachers, students and parents must be concerned and schools must punish the bullies.

[Seo, InJi]

If some one is being bullied, he hates not only bullies but also himself. The victims think that they have problems. I think these situations were made bullies as they harass the victims not victims faults. Bullying wounded not only body but also emotion, so it was made suffered longtime for victims.

[Mi Hye Ahn]

First, there is physical bullying. It includes acts of kicking, pushing, and hitting a victim. Second, there is verbal bullying. For example, a bully teases a victim mercilessly. Lastly, there is a cyberbullying which is the most serious kind. If victims are bullied this way for a long time, they might lose their confidence. As a result, they may lose their sense of identity and have trouble getting along with other people. In extreme cases, they may even kill themselves. So, bullying has a bad influence on victims.

[Thomas]

Seo In Ji,
I agree with you. I feel bullying is much more emotional than physical, but yet the victim is much more afraid of the physical hurt. Have you ever seen a bullying incident?

[Seo, InJi]

Hi, Thomas.
When I was a middle school student I saw a bullying incident. Bullies picked on a student who was weaker that the others. They harassed him and even took his money. At that time most students thought that bullies were bad, but no one said anything to them. All students were scared that they would become victims. I think the victim was scared that the bullies would hurt him physically, too. But as time goes by a victim can recover from physical hurt; however, I think it’s hard to recover from emotional things.

[Yong Jin Lee]

Bullies think they are better than other students because they are bigger and stronger. Those kinds of students act in groups. Bullying makes victim feel worse than you can imagine. Victims lose their self-esteem. Most other students prefer not to help victims because they could be targeted. If bullies harass victims too much, they lose their self-esteem. Even if victim is really intelligent person, he will be the loser because he will never find out that he is good at something. Self-esteem is a really important thing to everybody.

[Sung Hwi Chung]

Bullies hurt vicitms physically and emotionally. In Korea, many strong people bully weak people. They hit the victims and take their money everyday. Sometimes they form group of bullies. Bullying makes victims feel very sad and takes everything away from them. Victims are normally timid people and are sometimes very depressed because of the bullying. Some victims who are bullied a long time, kill themselves.

[Anne Davis]

Eun Hyun Lee,

I read your comment with interest. Some schools have developed a zero tolerance policy for bullying at schools. In some cases, this means that with one instance of bullying, the student will be expelled. Do you agree with this policy or do you feel it is too extreme?

[Anne Davis]

Demba,

It was interesting to read your observations. I can tell you are giving thought to this serious problem. I have a real concern over the movies kids watch that promote violence as a way of solving problems. Do you have any ideas about how we could counteract the bullying that might come about from bullies wanting to transform a movie they saw into reality?

[Sun Ah]

Bullying is annoying a weak person. When I think of bullying, an image that comes to mind is that a victim is confined to a corner of the classroom and crying. In school environments taunting, teasing, hitting and kicking are common behaviors which bullies use to harass victims.

When I was a middle school, I witnessed a bullying situation.At that time, I just stood by and ignored that situation because I was afraid that I would be another victim. Now I regret not having intervened because I know that intervening is very important and can change a situation.

[Anonymous]

Bullying is really mean

[Sujeong Hong]

Today, there are many kinds of bullying behavior among students. Bullies harass victims by hitting them, calling them names, and threatening them in school--on the way to school, and even on-line. Most victims lose confidence in themselves and don't want to go to school or talk with anyone. At that time victims are in mortal fear of physical hurt, but the serious problem is emotional injury because it takes much longer to get over.

[Demba]

Anne Davis, Thanks for paying attention to my point of view. I think really violent movies should be forbidden to children. Also, parents should make sure their children don't watch bad movies.

[Lee. Eun Hyun]

Hi Anne Davis. Thank you for your comment. I think it's not too extreme. But I think if the first teacher warns them not to bully others, however, and they don't stop bullying, then they have to be expelled. Because of them, other students are suffering everyday.

[Collin Bonner's Group]

Bullies are people who pick on other people, start fights, call other students names because they think they are tougher than the people they are bullying.

[Nathan Rehman]

Bullies are mean people that hurt in a physical, verbal, or psycological way. It's wrong to put someone down! As a victim I plead to all bullies to STOP!!! It's not cool anyway.

[Shauna Jones]

I think bullying is not right. I don't think you would like it if you got bullied at school or at home. If you got bullied and you are bullying someone else then, you should know how it feels.

[Dodus]

When I began secondary school, I did not know my classmates. At first, I had a problem making friends. Then, three girls became my friends, but only for two weekends.

The third weekend when I went to the place where we usually met to talk, they went to another place because they did not want to be my friends.

After that, they wrote me a letter and told me that I was a loser. They also wrote lots of faults about me in a big book. It was a terrible experience for me, but I'm 20 today, and happily I've gotten over it.

[Gustavo]

I think bullying is a big problem for some students because they get bullied by jealous children. Being bullied can affect an innocent child emotionally. He/she can't say anything and doesn't want to go to school. If this problem can be stopped at the beginning, it's better, but they are afraid and stay quiet. They let the problem grow, and that is a problem.

[Eric]

All through Middle school I was treated like a piece of garbage. I was the class nerd. The only friends I had was kids in lower grades than me. All people ever did was make fun of me. I remember kids would laff at me because I didnt know what a certain dirty comment meant, or that I was the only one that liked a certain type of cartoon.

One time I was sitting down and a girl told me to move. I said no, and she pushed me down. I was on a 3 and a half foot tall brick layout inside the school. (we have a sort of garden around the brick) and when I fell, I felt I had broken my back. And then someone literaly kicked my butt. I felt my tail bone was broken.

At times I wanted to kill myself, and now because I did not know how to cope with others then, I dont know now how to make friends or even start a friendly conversation with someone.

[Norma]

Bullying is common in school cafeterias. I work in an elementary school cafeteria, and I often see children intentionally hitting other children.

[Hector]

I have problems with this. I'm bullied everywhere because of my appearance, but my defense is bullying the bully. In this life, you need to defend yourself if people provoke you.

It's a good idea to ignore bullies and not get angry because they will attack you again and again. But, if you don't like being bullied, be a bully yourself.